


Shinobi's Bane

by Caffae



Category: Naruto
Genre: Cynical, F/M, Gen, Haruno Sakura-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 21:55:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11170854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caffae/pseuds/Caffae
Summary: A poison changes everything.





	1. Capture

I can feel the poison spreading through my chakra channels, it’s slowly burning me from inside out, every time I reach for my chakra, it intensifies.

I once read about a poison like this in the Academy, they call it the Shinobi’s Bane. This is the one poison that doesn’t affect civilians, with their less developed chakra systems, most simply shrug it off as a bad stomach flu. For ninja though, it is deadly. The more chakra you have, the faster it takes effect. 

It’s really ironic, isn’t it? I’m not shinobi enough to avoid the poison but I am shinobi enough to die from it. An extruciatingly slow death, of course.

Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun jumped away from the cloud of poison almost immeditately, I recognized it and ran but I couldn’t get out in time, the moment I breathed in, I collapsed.

Naruto was next to me, I saw him breathe it in but somehow he must have pushed past the searing pain. 

They fled without even looking back.

At first, I thought they were disengaging to attack from another area. Maybe they thought I was behind them. 

Not anymore, minutes had passed and eventually the bandits realised they weren’t coming back after moments passed and they captured me.

It has been 18 days since I’ve been take prisoner. 

My chakra splutters under the poison but I’ve managed to grasp firmly onto it.

Procedure for those poisoned with Shinobi’s Bane is to wait for your teammates to rescue you, they might need to acquire backup so it might take up to 5 days. Do not attempt to manipulate chakra in anyway, it will speed up your death. 

I waited. 

I waited the 5 days, they’ll need to get to Konoha, assuming that Naruto has been incapitated. I waited another 3 days which was how long it took for us to get to this spot. I held out for another 10 days, making more reasons up for their delay that all fell apart when they never got here.

I waited till I realised that they were never going to come for me.

The bandits jeered as they watched me choke and gasp for air in their improvised cage, they kept a fair distance away from me, even tied up they were wary of what a ninja could do. The other slaves cringed in their cages during the day but during the night, I could feel eyes upon me, their rescuer was now one of them. Silent expectation weighed upon me to recover, to help them. 

Help them? I can’t even help myself.

They were selling us to some village in Grass apparently.


	2. Chapter 2

Wheels creaked, the cage jolted suddenly and finally we stopped.

By now, the poison running through my veins has me pale, weak and trembling at the bottom of my rickety wooden cage. The cuffs on my wrists and ankles has rubbed me raw, as I shied away from rough hands of daring bandits.

Days of travel inure you to rough treatment and terrible living conditions but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to being prodded and even groped by jeering men. 

I can’t get out of the chains, and considering the way I’m cuffed, ankles to wrists, chances are even if I do get an opportunity to run, I’ll at most be able to roll forward.

I coated my wrists with chakra to reinforce them as I tested the cuffs, the metal bent just the slightest but then the agonizing pain simmering just beneath my skin intensified and my chakra slid out of my control.

Sleep is a restless experience now, if you can call it that. I exhaust myself until I fall into unconsciousness, but my dreams are never pleasant, I wake up clammy and my heart races as I try to figure out if anything has been done to me while I was asleep.   
____________________________________________________

When I next wake, my surrondings are the first thing I notice.

Clinical white walls and a surgical table. Konoha?

Did my team finally come for me? 

I move to get off the surgical table but then my wrist cuffs jerk me back. My feet are free now but it’s clear that I’ve been chained to this position.

Right... I knew that they weren’t coming for me. Of course, I;m not in Konoha. I’m so stupid!

At the turn in my thoughs, unbidden tears slide down my face. 

I am never going to be able to go home. My parents. Oh god, my parents, they must be so worried... no by now they must think I am dead. Kaa-san never wanted me to be a shinobi, I see why now but otou-san though, he only ever told me to do what made me happy. They don’t deserve to hear that their only daughter is dead. 

I’m really sorry kaa-san, I couldn’t be the civilian daughter you wanted, I just... needed to be more. You always tried your best to teach me how to act, to arm me with what I’ll need to survive in society and to keep me safe as long as possible. I’ve been terribly headstrong, and just so sure.. that I’ll be fine, that I could be a shinobi and still be perfectly safe, that I could survive this no matter what the statistics say. That I could be like Ino.

I’m really really sorry tou-san, you were the most supportive parent anyone could ever have asked for. You let me do whatever I wanted to do and snuck me stuff I wanted when kaa-san disagreed. You let me learn from my own mistakes and gave me space to figure out what it was I really wanted to do. I’m sorry that I couldn’t be a better shinobi, that I didn’t work harder, that I was just complacent that my book-smarts were enough, that if I could top the Academy with my written work then I was doing just fine. 

The truth is, I have been a burden on my team ever since I was put with them. I always critisized Naruto for being an idiot and not studying but when it counts, he’s always ready to fight the enemy and he never hangs back out of the fight like me. In Wave, they all fought and I just guarded Tazuna-san. Honestly, I have been protected by them all since the very start. No wonder they didn’t come back, they probably assumed I was dead already. Afterall a true shinobi wouldn’t have allowed themselves to be captured without a fight. Even Naruto managed to make it far enough to them.

By now, I was sobbing brokenly, choking out apologies to my parents that they would never get to hear. The aching grief rushing through me was more overhelming than the poison’s burn. For a second, all I could feel was my grief for my parents that I will never see again, my team that really did have every reason to give up on me and I just really missed them. I missed them all so much.

Soft hands encircle my wrist cuffs with green chakra. I jerk up in surprise. 

He is a few years older than me, his face is placid and rather blank though I get the feeling he isn't particularly impressed with me. His brows furrow a little as he examines the wrist cuffs.

“What did you do?” He finally asks.

I try not to fidget guiltily as I remember my escape attempt. “I didn’t-“

“Don’t lie to me.” He calmly continued at me over his glasses, as he shifts his grip onto my wrists, pinning them above me. “You won’t like the consequences.”

I wince. “I tried to get out of them” I mumbled.

He sighs. “Yes, I gathered that. Most prisoners do.” He deadpanned at me. “I was asking what you did to bend the lock, most prisoners don’t usually achieve quite this effect.”

“I tried to break them... with chakra.” I reply quietly.

He raises a brow at me but says nothing as he efficiently slices through the cuffs with a chakra scapel.

“You’ll be living in the dormitories with the other servants, do not try to escape, if you do, you’ll be captured as test subjects. Am I understood?” He scribbled on a clipboard, before he looked down at me seriously.

“...yes” 

He glanced at the discarded cuffs, before he grinned sadistically at me. “Though I won’t particularly mind experimenting on you, you have the potential to be rather... interesting.”

“What are you waiting for?” He turned back to the desk but sensing me still waiting he gestured me towards the door.

“But... What do I do now? Where do I go?” I question.

He sighs again. “Head to the dormitories, await further instruction.“

I go.


End file.
